ShackCam tests, one week on

The shackcam has been running for one week and I am pleased to report that on it's current hardware (after some bodging by me to the Dazzle hardware) that is is working just fine, the website itself has been updated to include my Amateur callsign as the primary callsign, with my CT callsign being secondary as it is not really an official callsign and I've not done a lot of CB or 446 work in a while and the bulk of my transmissions have been on 2-meters since my license came through.

I plan to move all my radio operations (except /m and /p of course) back to the shack in the coming weeks, my handhelds are being charged elsewhere and Echolink is currently running on my laptop though I plan to keep it on there for the foreseeable future, but it's on my phone as well

With the shackcam working as it should be I am happy, the shack computer will be shut down at some stage to allow the monitor to be wall mounted to free up the desk space it currently occupies for such items such as radio chargers, so expect to see changes soon

73 de M6RSQ/26CT730 on CB/PMR446

ShackCam tests

I've put my shackcam back on for testing, this is in part after I discovered a fault with the FTPd running on my server (the server itself is also visible on the shackcam as it is on the shelves that seperate my living room between living area and shack), and to ensure the hardware is still up to the job until a better camera can take it's place, it appears to be but it has been erroring out periodically.

The camera will be on for the next week in order to ascertain if it is working as it should be, if it is then  I have no further work that I need to do, if not then I will need to do some further work, so I can put a proper 2/70 rig into the shack as I plan to operate on both the 2-meter and 70cm bands in the coming months,

The link for the shackcam is unchanged and is on the right hand side of this page.

73 de M6RSQ (or 26CT730 on CB/PMR446)

Blackpool rally

In light of missing the Ripon Rally due to family commitments I made the journey over to Blackpool for the rally there, was bigger than I thought it would be but worth the trip to see what these things are all about.

The journey was fine until I approached and entered Cumbria, wherein the weather took a turn for the worse, this continued onto the M6 through Lancashire, getting better the closer to Blackpool I got,

On arrival at the venue I was spending a lot of time parking my car as there were no spots available, eventually one became available and £5 later I was in the venue, which had the vast majority of the clubs from the North West in attendance along with various sellers of amateur radio equipment, along with used equipment stands, and the RSGB, selling books and offering membership, which I took out and got a free Baofeng BF-888S UHF as well as the latest RadCom (which I shall take along to the club in case anyone wants to read it that is not a member

I was hoping to pick up a 2/70 mobile or base unit, used of course, for home that I could run on the slim-jim or some other homebrew antenna that could potentially cover both bands, I'll keep an eye out for cheap, yet still serviceable, radios for that purpose on the Internet.

So. to sum up the Blackpool rally, a good day out, but get there very early if you want a parking spot, I certainly plan to go next year but only if the weather wasn't as terrible for driving as this time.


73 de M6RSQ

GB3HG access tests

As regular readers may or may not know, I am within range of two 2-meter repeaters, GB3IR, which I can hit very easily with 1 watt as it's just down the road from my QTH, and GB3HG on Sutton Bank near Thirsk, so today I decided to give HG a go.

Test conditions was set up using Baofeng UV-5RC Plus with stock antenna inside my flat.

Keying up at 1 watt was not sufficient enough to open HG, releasing the key there was no response. 5 watts appeared to be enough to open the repeater, upon releasing the key the repeater appeared to be open, however there was no one else listening to give me a report on how well the repeater was actually hearing me or even if it was at 5 watts so I may give it another go, for fairness I will use the same radio with the same antenna with the same power output.

Another nearby repeater is GB3CD but I am not within range of it at my home QTH as far as I know (was unable to hear it before they switched it over to Yaesu System Fusion, not tried since but suspect I still cannot hear it), though it doesn't matter if CD is out of range as it is on Echolink like GB3IR so can do one of two things, connect IR to CD or connect to CD through my phone or computer(s)

I'll post more on this as time permits

73 de M6RSQ